Deadhouse Gates

It’s bound to happen in any game. Maybe it’s over something like material wealth, or perhaps over a given course of action to be taken by the party, but conflict of interest happens with a moderate frequency in most P&P RPG’s I’ve played. Most of the time it’s the players who are actually responsible for it, putting themselves at odds with the other characters, or sometime sheer coincidence and crossed loyalties result in a convoluted mass of interconnections that looks more like spaghetti rather than a series of straight lines.

Normally such things resolve themselves, but on occasion two characters end up utterly devoted to their specific loyalties and don’t back down, resulting in a dangerous situation that teeters on the verge of PVP. I’m not a fan of player vs player conflict myself, since ultimately one of the characters is going to end up dead, and negative feelings crop up all around unless the team is extremely understanding of such and have explicitly stated that it’s OK.

In cases when such an event does occur, what are the options available for GM’s who don’t want it to turn into PVP? Well, in my opinion the best bet is to take it out of the game and discuss it among your players honestly. Tell them about how you feel about the situation and check with them if they’re fine with how things are going. If they’re not, then slip in the query of how to get the characters to back off or at least reach a compromise.

Most reasonable players will be wiling to sort thing out out of character, and resuming play. There’s nothing wrong with this approach in my opinion, and you do not automatically become a bad GM just because you couldn’t resolve the situation peacefully in character. Let’s face it, as a GM, your control is limited to the NPCs. Player characters are a whole different animal, so it becomes crucial to come in and apply a different solution.

In the end it all comes back to communication. Talk to your players, listen to what they have to say, and find their comfort zones. As long as you’re playing within that range, then there’s no harm, no foul and everyone can let loose and have fun. But the moment things get to the point where the players themselves feel back for what their characters “will have to do” then it might be a good idea to pull back out of character and renegotiate the situation.